Stories from Wednesday, August 9, 1995

Missouri State Auditor Margaret Kelly appears to be arguing before a Cole County circuit court that the system of checks and balances between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government doesn't apply to her office. While she certainly has a right to her opinion, her actions set a dangerous precedent for the future of open government in Missouri...

Jackson R-II School Bus routes for 1995-96 Parents are asked to please teach their elementary students where they will be going after school. Name and address of parents or the daycare center or sitter is absolutely necessary to make certain that these younger students are on the right bus after school. ...

Cape Girardeau Elementary Bus Routes Clippard School Route 1 Start at Bloomfield and Edgewood. Stops at 7:35 at Jan and Edgewood, 7:37 at Quince and Edgewood, 7:38 at Barberry and Quince, 7:39 at Barberry and Jewel, 7:40 at Edgewood and Route K/William, 7:41 at 500 Broadview, 7:43 at Cape Rock and Terry Hill, 7:44 at Cape Rock and Ranchito, 7:45 at Lombardo and Landgraf (West), 7:46 at Landgraf and Lombardo (East), 7:47 at Cape Rock and Scivally Drive, 7:48 at Cape Rock and Perryville, 7:49 at Clark and Marietta, 7:50 at Howell and Jane, 7:51 at Howell and Erna, 7:52 at Erna and Karen, 7:53 at Karen and Jean Ann, 7:54 at Fairlane and Ford, 7:55 at 2530 Fairlane, 7:56 at Meadow Lane and Cape Rock, 7:57 at Kingsway, 7:58 at Pet Hospital, 7:59 at 1900 N. ...

A $10 membership fee to the National Arbor Day Foundation will get the new member 10 white flowering dogwoods and a subscription to the bimonthly Arbor Day publication.] The trees are part of the nonprofit organization's Trees for America campaign. To become a member, send the $10 membership fee to Ten Dogwoods, National Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Ave., Nebraska City, Neb., 68410, by Aug. 31...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will draw $194 million from the U.S. Treasury to meet claim payments from spring floods in Missouri and Louisiana as well as future floods. FEMA Director James Lee Witt said no taxpayer money will be used to repay the loan; instead, FEMA will pay back the Treasury within three years at the Treasury interest rate of 7 percent...

To the editor: The Southeast Missourian recently published a letter from a Jackson couple who traveled on the American Queen steamboat. Their letter was another stinging example of Cairo-bashing by Southeast Missourians. They praised, as they should, their own area, but their unnecessary bashing of Cairo was mean-spirited and begs the question: Why?...

The Missouri Public Service Commission has modified the list of exchanges that can keep the 314 area code. Residents of Washington, Warrenton, St. Clair, Jonesburg, High Hill, Holstein and Marthasville still will be reached by dialing 314. Those residents originally were slated for the 573 area that goes into effect Jan. 1...

Missouri's U.S. senators will sponsor four area listening posts Aug. 16. The district office director for Sens. John Ashcroft and Kit Bond, Tom Schulte, will be available to constituents during these times: From 9 to 10 a.m., Klein'S Medicate in Ste. Genevieve; from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Hoeckele's Bakery in Perryville; from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Gray Law Office in Marble Hill and from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Chamber of Commerce in Jackson...

The massive Cape LaCroix Creek-Walker Branch flood control project in Cape Girardeau should be completed by late 1997. The project has caused inconvenience for motorists and businesses along its path. But that inconvenience doesn't compare to the flash flooding damage that has plagued the city's central west end for years...

A Catholic school in St. Louis County recently opted for a year-around schedule. Our Lady of the Presentation School is the first in the St. Louis Archdiocese to choose such as schedule. It joins one public school district, the Francis Howell district in St. Charles County, which operates its elementary school year-around...

Cape Girardeau Public Schools Aug. 28 First day of school Sept. 5 Labor Day (No school) Nov. 10 State teachers meeting (No school) Nov. 9 Parent/teachers conference Nov. 23-24 Thanksgiving (No school) Dec. 20-Jan. 1 Christmas (No school)...

SIKESTON -- After this weekend, the Sikeston Jaycees Bootheel Rodeo probably will be among the 10 biggest in the country, Jaycees say. But for the next few days, rodeo organizers will have to settle for the 15th largest rodeo in the country. The rodeo begins tonight...

Mike McDowell would like to spend more time learning about the city of Cape Girardeau, but the city manager candidate already has learned there is plenty of potential. "This is a larger city than where I'm at, and the scope of operations is broader," said the 43-year-old McDowell, who has been the chief administrative officer of Creve Coeur near St. Louis since 1988...

Cape Girardeau voters overwhelmingly approved a transportation sales tax Tuesday that will fund 20 road and bridge projects. Voters approved the half-cent, five-year sales tax by a 1,638-vote margin, 68 percent to 32 percent. The measure passed 3,124 to 1,486. It carried in all but two of Cape Girardeau's 16 precincts. In many precincts, it carried by wide margins...

After a decade of litigation, the Southeast Missouri Council on Aging hopes officially to own Lindenwood Apartments by Sept. 1. The council president, Grace Hoover, said court proceedings between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency that funded the housing project for elderly and handicapped people, and companies responsible for building Lindenwood Apartments prevented the council from taking ownership of the six-story building...

In addition to a night of rodeo and country music entertainment, visitors to the 43rd annual Sikeston Jaycees Bootheel Rodeo could learn about unclaimed cash and property they rightfully own. Representatives from the Missouri State Treasurer's office will be at the rodeo grounds today and Thursday with computer equipment to search about 500,000 names of people who might have cash and property in the custody of the state...

The first and last of anything is cause for reflection and deserves some sorting out. The first kiss, the first job, the first venture into the real world. They all seem scary, exciting, necessary and momentous. My first column was about my father taking me to my first major league baseball game and the cancer that made us all deal with something harsh...

IF I have to listen to one more history revisionist or scholar debate the validity of dropping the atomic bomb, I'm going to declare Aug. 6 as Happy Hiroshima Day at my house. It will be a blowout barbecue. We built it. We used it. They deserved it. We won. Enough said...

Agenda Wednesday, Aug. 9, 7 p.m. City Hall, 401 Independence Public hearings Request for special-use permit for a mobile home at 1140 N. Frederick. Request for special-use permit for auto parts business at 833 N. Spanish. Request for special-use permit for apartments in Timberlane Subdivision and 2910 Kage Road...

Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School will hold new-student orientation Aug. 21 for eighth-grade students and any ninth-grade student who haven't attended the school in the past. Students with last names beginning with A through K should attend the 9 a.m. session. Students with last names beginning with L through Z should attend the 10:30 a.m. session...

OAK RIDGE -- The Oak Ridge School District will begin classes Aug. 18, with a full day from 8:15 a.m. until 3 p.m. Bus routes will be similar to last year. Registration for new students will be Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. New students in grades kindergarten through sixth should report to the elementary principal's office. New students in grades seven to 12 should report the high-school principal's office...

JACKSON -- A whopping 308 students enrolled in Jackson's kindergarten program for 1995-96, an increase of at least 40 students over last year. The Jackson public school system also screened 24 more kindergarten students for Immaculate Conception School, students who likely will end up with Jackson in later grades. Even more students may enroll on the first day of school...

SIKESTON -- Voters in Sikeston approved a quarter-cent capital improvements sales tax while Oran voters created a fire protection district that will tax residents in an area outside the community that it will serve. Sikeston's sales tax was approved 886 to 787 and the Oran fire protection proposal passed by a 55-vote margin...

A Sikeston construction company owner has offered to build a jail and lease it to Scott County. The Scott County Commission met behind closed doors for an hour and a half Tuesday with Kenneth Bridger, owner of Bridger Construction Co.; Sheriff Bill Ferrell and architect Bob Stearnes...

PULASKI, Ill. -- Funeral service for Ernest Orlan Parker of Pulaski will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Pulaski Christian Church, with the Rev. Jesse Bellamy and William Winters officiating. Burial will be in Green Lawn Memorial Gardens in Villa Ridge...

ANNA, Ill. -- Funeral service for Bryon Lynn Hoffman II of Anna will be held at 1 p.m. today at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Anna. Steve Shepherd will officiate, with burial in Jonesboro Cemetery. Hoffman, 23, died Sunday, Aug. 6, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, of injuries received while working on a car that fell on top of him...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Nona P. Davenport of Troy will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel in East Prairie. Ted Wimberley will officiate, with burial in Dogwood Cemetery. Davenport, 76, died Sunday, Aug. 6, 1995, at Lincoln County Memorial Hospital in Troy...

PARMA -- Funeral service for Glenda L. Davis of Parma will be held at 11 a.m. today at Liley Funeral Chapel in Marble Hill. The Rev. Johnny Lemmons will officiate, with burial in Bollinger County Memorial Park Cemetery near Marble Hill. Davis, 68, died Monday, Aug. 7, 1995, at Doctors Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff...

Pearl Stout Strack, 80, of Brentwood, Tenn., formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Monday, Aug. 7, 1995, at Lake Shore Meadows Nursing Home in Nashville, Tenn. She was born Sept. 8, 1914, in Allenville, daughter of Charles and Etta Thompson Harmon. She first married Weldon Stout on Oct. 20, 1937, in Cape Girardeau. He preceded her in death on May 11, 1965...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Paul "Tut" Berry, 84, of East Prairie, died Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born May 20, 1911, in Berkley, Ky., son of Clay and Lena Berry. He married Helen Louise Bailey, who preceded him in death...

CHAFFEE -- Robert Hess Land, 89, of Chaffee died Monday, Aug. 7, 1995, at his home. Funeral service will be at 2 p.m. today at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee, with the Rev. William Marshall officiating. Burial will be in Barks Chapel Cemetery near Crump...

Eugene Herbert Chicon, 90, of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1995, at the Lutheran Home. He was born Feb. 22, 1905, in Cape Girardeau, son of William and Fannie Burpo Chicon. He and Mable Irene Rose were married Oct. 16, 1934, in Cape Girardeau. She died Aug. 4, 1983...

DEXTER -- Marion Fay Ellis, 66, of Dexter, died Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1995, at Lake Wappapello. He was born Feb. 13, 1929, in Holladay, Tenn., son of Giles Vick and Ethel Bond Ellis. He and Billie Maclin were married Dec. 7, 1949, in Piggott, Ark. Ellis was a maintenance worker with Hudson Foods Farm. He moved to Missouri in 1938, to Harrisburg, Ill., in 1964, and to Dexter in 1977...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Doil C. Kohler, 85, of Jonesboro, died Monday, Aug. 7, 1995, at Union County Hospital in Anna. He was born June 22, 1910, in Jonesboro, son of William Henry and Cora Jane Meisenheimer Kohler. He and Anna King were married June 30, 1930, in Union County...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Allen E. "Gene" Lyerla, 86, of Alto Pass, died Monday, Aug. 7, 1995, at Illinois Veterans Home in Anna. He was born Dec. 25, 1908, in Alto Pass, son of Milas O. and Nora Lea Edmonds Lyerla. He and Myrtle Marie Gray were married Jan. 11, 1933, in Benton. She died Feb. 3, 1990...

PERRYVILLE -- Howard Francis Weinkein, 86, of Perryville, died Monday, Aug. 7, 1995, at Perry County Nursing Home. He was born June 10, 1909, in Perry County, son of Felix A. and Rosa Miget Weinkein. He and Mary C. Benlien were married June 15, 1930...

MILL CREEK, Ill. -- Funeral service for Merlin Pecord of Mill Creek will be held at 10 a.m. today at Mill Creek Baptist Church, with the Rev. Bill Joyce officiating. Burial will be in Green Lawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Hileman and Parr Funeral Home in Jonesboro is in charge of arrangements...

WYATT -- Funeral service for Tony Sevic of Wyatt will be held at 2 p.m. today at McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston. The Rev. Tom Bridges will officiate, with burial in IOOF Cemetery. Sevic, 74, died Monday, Aug. 7, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston...

MARBLE HILL -- Funeral service for Peggy Louise Hensley, Marble Hill Route 1, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City. The Rev. Dale Huff will officiate, with burial in Unity Baptist Cemetery at Benton. Friends may call at the funeral home after 3 p.m. today...

On a sultry August evening, four boys raced through their slices of watermelon, the fruit's watery goodness dripping from their chins. Several members of another generation put aside the hoes they were using in the half-acre patch beside a branch that eases by Zion United Methodist Church near Gordonville. The grown men, too, were soon savoring every bite, never mind the seeds...

If we had not visited Missouri Botanical Garden on one of the hottest, most humid days of summer (upper 90s), we would not have known a number of things about the garden in the hot summertime. We would not have known that sundial peppermint portulaca and dwarf marine purple heliotrope could stand intense heat all day, or that mandevillas could be used in hanging baskets or that our own Dave Niswonger is the incoming president of the American Iris Society...